The One Where Everybody Finds Out
by WickedSong
Summary: An AU version of how everyone could have found about Sam and Mercedes' relationship, had Sam remained in Lima following those summer nights. Inspired by the F.R.I.E.N.D.S episode of the same name and also includes Brittana, past!Pizes and mentions of the other canon couples. T for language.


**The One Where Everybody Finds Out,**

**Written by WickedSong.**

**Disclaimer/Note : I do not own Glee, FOX do, and I don't own F.R.I.E.N.D.S either from which this was inspired, especially the episode The One Where Everybody Finds Out. I just wanted to do something like this for so long and it just came so easily to write once I started. This is one of my longest pieces to date so please, please, if you get to the end and you've found that you enjoyed it, leave me a review! Please! Additionally this is AU obviously in a world where Sam never left.**

* * *

Pinkies linked Brittany is leading her girlfriend to the choir room in the nearly deserted halls of William McKinley High School.

"What did you forget?" the other Cheerio, her pinkie curved around Brittany's gently, asks. The first glee practice of the year ended in the crapper when Schue revealed they were down two this year due to Quinn's cry for help in the form of a new badass attitude, complete with pink hair and tattoo of Ryan Seacrest and Lauren deciding that Puckerman - and Glee - didn't do it for her anymore.

Brittany keeps walking but replies, "I bought some snacks for Lord Tubbington and left them accidentally. He's already giving me the cold shoulder, and I must make amends or else the revolution will come to be."  
Santana just smiles and nods because she understands and so lets herself be led down the halls. She's not ready to hold Brittany's hand yet, even when there's hardly anyone but the janitor and one or two teachers who still haven't left yet, around but this is a step for her and ones that she hopes tells her girlfriend that she wants to get there and try to do so soon.

Brittany opens the door to the office adjacent to the choir room and is just about to walk in when she stops and smiles through the glass window. Santana stops beside her.

"Oh look, Trouty Mouth and Wheezy." The latina girl goes to wave her hand and shout over to them but the words catch in her throat as one minute the pair are talking and the next Sam's humongous fish lips are over Mercedes' and the noises that she's making show how much she appreciates this. Mercedes then proceeds to take a hold of Sam's hair and that's when Santana quickly backs out of the office, mentally noting that she should invest in some bleach for her brain after this.

"MY EYES! MY EYES! OH MY GOD! BRITT DID YOU - MY FUCKING EYES!"

She's shocked and she's horrified and everything in between and she doesn't know what to say about the two people she would have never pegged as a couple sticking their tongues down each other's throats in one of the weirdest displays of tonsil tennis she's ever seen.

Sam and Mercedes?

_Trouty Mouth and Wheezy?_

When did that even happen?

She's not sure why she had the quickfire response she did. It's just that surprise has overtaken her coupled with the fact she feels like a real dumbass that something's been going on right under everyone's noses.

Brittany, on the other hand, looks serene and calm, her hand over her heart. "They finally got together," is all she says simply before going to walk back into the office and greet them, Santana supposes.

Santana stops her however. "Finally? _Finally?_" Brittany saw it coming? It _finally _happened?

Brittany nods. "At prom and New York but I thought they were dancing around each other but no, they've obviously been dancing _with _each other all that time." She looks wise in this moment.

"I'm just...surprised..." Santana manages. She whips her head back round to where she can see the pair, still sitting in each other's company in the choir room, holding hands and making googly eyes at each other. If Santana wasn't so in love herself she would probably throw up at the sight of the happiness. As shocked as she is however, it does stir something in her heart.

She wonders quickly how long it's been going on for but shakes her head and with that superior bitch smirk activated walks into the choir room, noting that they must be on their guard because if she had been unsuspecting she would never have seen it coming. Brittany follows close behind and picks up the cat food she left behind one of the seats for 'safe keeping'.

Sam yawns in order to feign innocence while Mercedes finds a sudden interest in her bag that Santana finds amusing to be honest.

"Well, what a surprise that you guys are still here," the dark haired girl comments, then looks at an imaginary watch, "what, twenty minutes after practice is over." She tilts her head with a smile. "How interesting."

Both look uncomfortable.

"Well we thought we'd collaborate on something," Mercedes quickly says. "Mr. Schue's always going on about doing something different but he never actually does. Maybe if we show him he'd take it on board."

Santana shrugs, almost forgetting her real reason for this interrogation at the true words Mercedes is saying about their teacher. "Not likely." She then returns to her former line of interest. "So, what are you working on?"

"We were just brainstorming..."

"Yeah, we can continue our brainstorming at my house," Mercedes adds swiftly before Santana can speak again.

Sam nods fevertly and then brings his enthusiasm down. "Yeah, of course, sure, we should go then." He nods his head at Brittany and Santana. "See you tomorrow."

"Later Trouty, Wheezy," Santana says as the pair leave. She runs quickly to the door and sure enough once they're up the hall way far enough she sees their hands meet and join together.

She shakes her head.

If they think they can keep this a secret any longer, she'll have as much fun as she can.

* * *

"Come on dude, hurry up," Puck whines as he stands by the locker room door. Practice ended at least ten minutes ago but no, Sam has to take forever to get ready. The mohawked teen knocks the door harder and shouts again, "Fine! But can I at least use your phone to call this girl I was meant to be seeing tonight? Tell her I'll be late?"

It's a moment but Sam puts his head around the door but is hesitant in giving the phone over. "Are you sure you're not jumping into this awfully fast? You and Lauren broke up only-"

"Two weeks ago and that's still too long I've been single and off the market." Puck puts up his front because he'll be dammed if another person tells him he should take time to 'heal his heart.' He already endured the lecture from Mr. Schue when he pulled him aside following the first glee practice that Lauren didn't show up to, when his mother found out about the break-up (while Lauren wasn't Jewish and this did annoy his mother she still liked the spunk that the girl showed) and even his Nana who had hit him with a rolled up newspaper but threatened to do a whole lot worse if he didn't heed the warning.

Sam hands his phone over to his friend. "Only if you're sure. Maybe there's a reason you're making an unneccessary phone call considering the fact you're not going to be late." Sam shrugs and Puck just rolls his eyes, takes the phone and punches in the girl's number from his own phone which has almost run out of battery and won't allow him to make calls.

Once the phone call is made boredom takes over and Puck finds himself innocently wandering through Sam's text messages. It's not like his friend will mind, he tells himself, bros do this to each other all the time. They're all pretty standard messages to his mom, his dad, one or two to Mike and Puck himself. His interest isn't really piqued until he comes across Mercedes' name many, many times.

He's not really confused at first, maybe they're friends now, they did spend an awful lot of time together now and when it seemed as if Sam was moving to Kentucky before his dad was offered a job in Lima at what felt like the eleventh hour, she had been affected by it. Puck had just taken it as they were all upset and that included her but now...

_can't wait to see u in the morning, it's cheesy as hell but it feels like forever, you know, even if it has been like a couple of hours :p i guess you like my brand of crazy tho, rite ;)_

As he read the text that Sam had sent Mercedes only last night his thoughts ran rampant as one overwhelmed him.

Sam and Mercedes?

_Sam and Mercedes?_

How did that happen?

And worst of all they acted as if they were just really good accquintances who knew each other in glee club when there was evidence staring him right in the face that it was a whole lot more than that. That they were together.

Like together, together?

Sure he had noticed the hint of a spark at prom between them but they had dismissed that so quickly. Hell, Lauren had said to him-

The thought of Lauren sends him off track for a few seconds.

Sam comes out of the locker room and Puck just stares at him like he's seen him for the first time. And maybe he has because ever since the start of the new school year the boy in front of him has been happier than he's ever been when he was with Quinn and Santana and his family are still in that motel room as well, even if they're moving out in two weeks time. Puck had put it down to his dad getting the job and not having to move but maybe something - someone else - inspired the change.

"Can I get my phone please?"

Sam holds out his hand and Puck hands him it, still dazed but walking alongside him, silently willing him to confide in him about his secret relationship with Mercedes but he never does.

Puck wonders why and more so how long this thing has been going on but he decides not to bring it up, at least not to the two themselves. In a split second he wishes Lauren was still in glee club - in his life. He'd tell her and then she'd make a comment and he'd laugh but then she'd smile. He knows she'd smile.

He shakes his head. He talks about her like she's dead or something. He still sees her in the halls. They just don't stop to talk anymore, or laugh, or have an impromptu kiss.

_Fuck_, he thinks, _that girl really messed him up._

He looks at Sam and hopes that the boy knows how lucky he really is to have somebody.

* * *

"So what did you do over the summer?" Finn asks Sam as the two of them sat on the bleachers having their lunch a couple of weeks after school started again.

Everyone else had been talking about their summer; Kurt had spent his composing his musical and spending time with Blaine, who transferred to McKinley at the beginning of the week, Mike had spent his with Tina and working as a dance instructor at Asian Camp again, Artie spent his time making short films in early preparation for college applications _next year _while Puck hadn't told anyone and no one wanted to force it out of the sullen boy. Sam had also been suspiciously quiet about his own.

The other members of their usual group had had other things to do this lunchtime after the twenty minute catch up so it was just Sam and Finn and Sam smiles at the tall boy.

"It was pretty amazing."

"Even when you almost moved away?"

Sam's fake darkens and he shakes his head. "I'll never forget the panic I had then, thinking about having to leave all you guys, the glee club, he-" He stops himself but Finn's already pegged onto the last word he was going to say and is smiling like an excited puppy.

"Her? _Her_?"

"Could you be any louder right now?"

"So who's this girl you nearly had to leave?" Thoughts of eating his lunch, which sits beside him, is gone but Sam refuses to give out any names. He only smiles fondly.

"We spent time by the lake, a lot of time by the lake, and we went to this out of town carnival. It was good but the best part was being with her."

Finn feels touched by the fact that he and Sam can sit and talk like this, especially considering all that went down with them the previous year, much of which he still hates himself for. But knowing that Sam found love again and this time, much stronger considering the way he's speaking about this girl, makes him feel better, if only just a little.

"So did you see her again?"

Sam nods. "Yeah, I still am."

Finn's eyes widen. "Dude, really? Who is she? Does she go to this school."

It's at this point that Sam shakes his head, a smirk on his lips. "When you need to know you'll know."

He doesn't bring it up again but the idea perplexes him for the rest of the day until it all falls into place thanks to Rachel. He's waiting for glee to begin when she looks at Mercedes and whispers to him, "Mercedes has a boyfriend," she reveals, "but she wouldn't tell me his name."

Finn's lips quirk into a smile as he thinks this is very coincidental as he was just about to ask Rachel to help identify Sam's mystery girlfriend.

"Apparently they spent a lot of time at the lake and she was telling me about this carnival, I think it's the same one you and I were going to-"

Finn freezes as the realisation kicks in and he stands up just as Rachel mentions Shane Tinsley and how her suspicions are locked on the beefy member of the football team. Finn knows that she's on the completely wrong track.

"Sam! Mercedes!"

Everyone looks at him with a weird expression, all except Santana and Puck who both snap their heads around as their eyes widen, as if they knew something already. Finn can't question this however as both Sam and Mercedes stand up.

"You want to speak to us?" asks Sam nervously and Mercedes looks to the door.

"Hallway?"

"Hallway's good," Sam agrees as he nods.

Finn darts his eyes between them and know that if he explains his sudden outburst as the truth then he risks losing their friendship - and his link to Sam is already strained at the least. He makes up some b.s. excuse about needing to talk to them about song arrangements that he had completely forgotten about - something which causes even Rachel to give him a weird look and follows the secret couple out into the hall.

Once he closes the choir room door behind him they walk into a deserted class along the way and once inside, he lets his shock come to the fore.

"You!" He turns to Sam. "And you!" He turns to Mercedes as he leans on a desk for support. "When!"

"New York."

"_New York_?"

"Seriously, if you don't shut the hell-"

Finn recoils at Mercedes' tone.

"Sorry," he whispers, "but New York? That was," he seems to be doing some calculations in his head before he shouts, "five months ago! Five months!"

"Finn-" Sam warns and Finn nods as he quiets his voice.

"But-"

"We're going to tell everyone," Mercedes tells him, "but it's just been so nice not having to deal with the drama of it all, you know?" She takes Sam's hand in her own and he gives her that lopsided grin and Finn feels as touched as he did when Sam was explaining about this wonderful girl he was dating, at lunch.

"So please, please can you keep it a secret?"

Finn looks torn. He's never been good at keeping secrets. Finally he nods however. "I will definitely try."  
"Not even Rachel," warns Mercedes, "or Kurt."

Finn nods and the three leave the classroom, Sam and Mercedes only letting go of each other's hands once Finn has opened the choir room door and can no longer shield them from view anymore.

* * *

Finn's in the library doing homework (he was as shocked as everyone else was when he told the glee club that was where he was going after practice) when a hand slams down on the table and Santana and Puck are both sitting opposite him.

"They're dating aren't they?"

"Who?" Finn asks, knowing that acting like he knows nothing is probably the best way to keep out of trouble right now.

Santana folds her arms. "Look, pyramid nipples, I don't gots all day so tell me now, are they dating?"

"Who?" Finn repeats. "Mike and Tina? Kurt and Blaine? Me and Rachel? There's a lot of pairings all over the-"

Puck now folds his arms. "Sam and Mercedes, they're dating, aren't they?"

Finn sighs. "How do you guys know?" Although he's only known the secret for a couple of hours he's glad he's not the only one now. He's sure he would've cracked under Rachel's interrogation of him which he knows would have happened due to her sixth sense for gossip among the group.

"Saw them making out in the choir room two weeks ago. It was _horrifying_."

"Got bored. Went through his texts. Feel kinda shitty about it now but," Puck shrugged in a 'what are you going to do about it' manner. "What about you? How did you figure it out?"

"Powers of deduction."

"So it's not just straw up there?" Santana asks, looking surprised. "I should tell Britt before she carries out her experiment."

"Experiment?" There is a certain fear in Finn's eyes that is unmistakable.

Santana doesn't answer. "Anyway, how are we gonna bust them?"

"Bust them?" asks Finn. He looks unsure. "I don't know guys, I mean, that seems kind of unfair."

"No, what's unfair is that they've been having this secret relationship for however long-"

"Five months."

Santana looks momentarily shocked at the length of time but continues, "-and because I haven't known I haven't been able to use my natural talents of dry wit and general hilarity. I swear, in the two seconds I saw them kiss I already had so many insults up my sleeve. Also, that they thought they could keep this from us."

Finn knows he's stuck in a corner especially when Puck and Santana so adamant so he leans forward, also knowing that Santana seems so pissed off because she's generally annoyed that they couldn't trust anybody with their secret. "What do you propose we do?"

"This is where Snix hops in," says Santana with a smile that Finn doesn't completely trust.

* * *

"They know!"

"Who knows?"

"Santana - and Puck."

Mercedes is folding her arms, then unfolding them, then folding them again. "Santana we suspected knew as much but Puck?"

Sam tries to think if he told Puck accidentally but an incident doesn't spring to mind unless...

"He read my texts!"

"What?" Mercedes questions. "When?"

Sam sighs and leans on the table. "When he was waiting for me in the locker rooms he had to phone his date and I gave him my phone. He was looking at me weirdly."

The trio are sitting in another deserted classroom. Sam and Mercedes were having a minor argument about something when Finn walked in and guessing there was no time like the present filled them in. In the silence he asks his question.

"By the way is everything okay with you two? You seem tense."

Mercedes sighs, as Sam had earlier and walks over to her boyfriend, a hand on his arm. "It appears someone has an admirer."

"Who?" Finn asks leaning back in the seat he had taken.

"Some Cheerio, I didn't catch her name, she just walks up to me, starts flirting, walks away." Sam shrugs and Finn's sheepish look makes a complete comeback as he tries to look anywhere but the two in front of him.

"What do you know, Finn?" Mercedes inquires as she walks to the table and Sam follows her also looking inquisitive.

"That's Alice, I think Santana paid her to flirt with Sam to get a reaction out of you."

Mercedes smirks and Sam nods. "Wow, that is genius. She should really harness that for good instead of evil."

Shaking her head, Mercedes folds her arms. "Well two can play at that game," she comments as Finn gives a sigh himself.

"Why can't you just tell everybody? I cannot keep this secret anymore," he tells them, as if almost begging from some relief of his one day old task as secret keeper for their relationship.

"See, _they_ don't know that _we _know that _they_ know."

"Huh?" Both Sam and Finn ask at the same time.

"Beat them at their own game. Sam, I give you full permission to flirt with this Cheerio. That'll teach Santana and Puck and keep us a secret a little while longer." She looks relieved that she managed to figure out a quick solution to their problem.

Sam nods his head but he does look doubtful. "Why don't we just tell them, huh? Save some stupid lesson that she's not even gonna take on board." He gives a wry chuckle and shrugs his shoulders.

Mercedes looks torn and then looks down.

Sam can sense her timid nature and she's always been like this when it came to the topic of when to tell their friends. He walks over and takes her shoulders, forcing her to look him the eye. "Just a little while longer. But if it accidentally comes out?"

"Then it accidentally comes out," she agrees.

She also mouths a quick 'thank you' to him and Finn again, feels the love that radiates from them. He already can't wait to tell this story in the future.

* * *

With more confidence than he feels Sam walks into the cafeteria with Finn and quickly locates Alice sitting at the Cheerios table.

As they walk Finn asks the question that's been on his mind.

"Why all the secrecy, dude? You guys seem really good for each other." He wants to add that he can see them going the distance but that could involve overstepping the boundaries between them, that unspoken code of what they can and cannot talk about.

Sam shrugs. "At first the drama of the glee club. We didn't want anyone else telling us what we had before we knew for sure. Then it just became easier for you guys not to know, especially over summer. By the first day back, we both wanted to tell people but we're both scared, I think."

"Of?"

"Lima's tolerant but it's not that tolerant, Finn," Sam tells him matter-of-factly, "and if something happened that involved that then she'd be hit worse by it than I would. It's when she's comfortable, that's when we'll tell everyone. I've never felt this way about anyone, not even Quinn. I don't want to lose her because of that or because of something stupid in _glee club_."

"Or if it comes out by accident."

Sam only nods as they reach the Cheerio table where Brittany and Santana sit with the girl Finn identified as Alice. Alice stands up and smiles at Sam, a smirk, full of lust and Sam tries to reciprocate, an action which catches Santana - and more so Brittany off guard.

The blonde stands up. "Aren't you dating 'Cedes?"

"Uh..."

"Britt!" Santana exclaims trying to pull her girlfriend back to sitting on the bench but the tall girl is having none of it. She folds her arms.

"No wonder you guys kept it a secret, wow Sam, I didn't think you were an asshole, like him." Finn shrinks a little under Brittany's gaze. She's nice but she always has this knack for saying what everyone else is thinking.

Finn can only see fear in Sam's eyes, and suddenly his own mind is brought back to the exchange in the library and his own fear when Santana mentioned something about Brittany's experiment. The girl may be in her own world nine out of ten times but there is no doubt that that world is probably filled with the many ways she's going to dispose of those who cross her or those close to her.

Sam looks around and can see that the entire cafeteria has stopped to listen to Brittany berating him. His eyes lock on Mercedes and people are looking at him and then at her and she nods at him. It's a small gesture but one that sets off a chain of events.

"Yes, I am with Mercedes, we are a couple, and that is because I love her."

Santana's jaw drops as does Puck, who sits at the table beside the Cheerio one. "Wait? You love her?"

Sam nods. "Yep, have since prom night I think." His hands are in his pockets, so nonchalantly, like his heart isn't beating rapidly as if it's going to burst out of his chest or he isn't silently wondering why he didn't do this before. It feels so good to just lay it out on the line like this.

"And I love him too!"

Sam turns and can see Mercedes looks utterly embarrassed by this display but is still wearing a smile, that smile that will always light up his life regardless of how dark the path in front of him and his family gets.

"I thought you two were just no strings attached," Santana confesses, standing up. She's looking at the pair, who now stand together as Mercedes made her way to the table. "I didn't think you were serious." She's grinning and if anyone ever tells her that she'll deny it straight out and show them some Lima Heights hospitality but she's just so damn happy for her friends right now.

"We're sorry," Puck says. "It was sucky what we did." He gives a shrug, that 'what are you going to do about it' and both Sam and Mercedes just laugh, smile and nod, accepting the apology from both of them.

Activity in the cafeteria resumes to normal and the pair make their way, with Puck, Santana, Brittany and Finn, to the glee club table where Tina, Mike, Rachel, Kurt, Artie, Blaine and the newly-reverted blonde haired Quinn stare them down with an intense glare, before breaking off in small groups to congratulate them on being a couple, berate them for never telling anybody about it.

Tina comments on the display they've just witnessed, calling it 'the most romantic thing she'd ever seen', Artie being sure he had saw something a whole lot similar on a sitcom years ago, and Rachel claiming that the theatrics of it all will make the most charming sub plot in the movie of her life and a great story to tell in her memoirs.

Everyone ignores her comments even if they do seem to be coming from a good place.

Before they sit down, and with a smirk on her face, Mercedes asks Sam, "Do you think they know?"

He simply smiles at her before looking down the group and then stealing a kiss on her cheek. "I think everyone knows now."

* * *

**Cheesy ending but you can't blame me for it! OK, you can but you smiled at it so you don't _want_ to blame me for it.**

**Santana's part was based off of when Pheobe find out, Puck's was a take on the fact that Rachel found out because of the phone calls about 'laundry' while Finn was quite obviously Joey here. That was the part that I stole the most inspiration from F.R.I.E.N.D.S. The plan with the cheerleader Alice is akin to Pheobe's seduction of Chandler.**

**Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this and please leave me a review, please! :)**

**WickedSong x**


End file.
